@chopnskrew // No matter what they threaten to do to me, don’t tell them anything.”
SHE WHIMPERED WITH a nod, the only limb she could move as of now with the majority of her body tied and slumped in the corner as she watched the latter with wide eyes. It wasn’t long before the unknown men harshly dragged them out of their little prison hole. Before Heejung was shoved in a chair on a corner and her companion then, Ash, was shoved in the middle.
And the show begins. Her face was unreadable but her eyes were raging with malice. It wasn’t every day that she wasn’t the one on the chopping board.
It was like half of him was missing; a void where half his personality should be, half of what was important, what was needed, and vital. A magical block had been created to stop him from feeling the ties that connected him to his burn, Taemin. Without the bond, he couldn’t change. Without the bond, he was stuck as a man - a gift and a curse. If Taemin were to perish without him, Asher would become a cat, and a cat he would stay until his next burn made eye contact with him.
It would be more than a failure, it’d be another piece of his heart torn away.
This ‘bad guy’, enemy, whatever, was powerful - scary powerful, to have separated his links with his burn, even temporarily. The only thing in his favor was that while the sorcerer had managed to recognize Asher as a familiar, he’d failed to realize that the woman he’d been enjoying the evening with was not his witch. She was ... something, something dark, with a basis in greed and lust, possibly evil. He’d always enjoyed speaking to her but treated her like he would another witch, wizard or magical creature: someone to be careful around, as he did not know much about whatever powers she had. What he did know was that if he stared too long, he felt a morbid desire to seduce her, and to tell her anything she wanted to know.
The word succubus felt too gentle for whatever she was. And he’d given her a little too much information about himself, what he was, and who he was connected to. An itch grew in the back of his mind that if it suited her, she’d set him up for this kind of ambush herself. But would she have her men tie her up as well? would she go that far to trick him?
honestly, he didn’t know. -- well, he did: she would. but she lacked a motive just now, hurting him and his burn would not gain her any power. She’d do better to attempt seducing them both than physically hurting them if she wanted their power. So no, he didn’t believe this was heejung’s doing. For some reason, the thought made him relax and trust that she’d keep her mouth closed for now.
The first bamboo strip bit under his nail, pushing it up and causing the familiar to cry out - no masculine pride here, folks, very few human beings ever withstood this torture silently. blood welled under the nailbed and trickled down the wood, Asher growled and tried to call the smoke to him, the mist that covered all painful transformations; and nothing happened but the steady dripping of his blood and laughter of the man holding nine more strips.
The questioning began. Who are you, where did you come from, are you immortal? Asher, a cat, no.
Lies, you’re lying. I’m not. What are you? I’m just a pet. Lies. I’m not.
Blood now dripped from five fingers, and Asher felt the world blur and go black - pain and blood loss sucking him into a void where it wouldn’t hurt anymore.